Apple Launches iCloud, iTunes Match, Dubbed “Piracy Amnesty”

Apple today launched their new iCloud provider at the yearly WWDC event, and whilst a lot of the focus was on the free service’s ability to sync your private information and files on multiple Apple devices, via the Internet, the feature gaining the most attention has being “iTunes Match”, the provider that some have dubbed as a “piracy amnesty program”.

So what does iTunes game do? Well, to put it simply, it scans your computer for songs, and if a matching track is discovered on iTunes, you have entry to the high quality legitimate version appropriate aside within the cloud, even if the track in your hard-drive was pirated. You will have to pay an yearly $USD24.95 rate to entry the service, but it could possibly be a incredibly cheap way to “legitimize” your, um, “less than legal” songs collection, as long as you continue to pay the yearly rate to entry the legitimized songs stored within the cloud.

And the most effective bit is the fact that all of this is done with the blessing of the report companies. 30% of the $25 will go to Apple, with the rest going to report labels.

For songs that don’t game up to something on iTunes, customers will nevertheless have the ability to upload the track to their iCloud drive, and write about the track on multiple devices, similar to the way cloud drives perform on Amazon and Android.

Nick O’Byrne, general manager of the Australian independent report Labels Association, questioned the proceed by Apple. “Why purchase at ‘full price’ when you can pirate as quite a few songs as you like and absolve yourself of guilt by paying $25 a year?” asked O’Byrne. However, O’Byrne also admits that iTunes game could possibly be a great way to “monetise tracks which have already been pirated”.

iTunes game will at first only be out there within the United States, but Apple is expected to launch the provider elsewhere soon after.